


On the Road to Wonderland I met a Wonder

by quillkill



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Cat cafe AU, Implied Relationships, M/M, a lot of other ships as well
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-08
Updated: 2016-07-08
Packaged: 2018-07-22 06:42:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7424107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quillkill/pseuds/quillkill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kenma works at a cat café and Kuroo is a lab assistant at a university. Kenma’s favorite cat escapes and Kuroo brings it back and then begins spending a suspicious amount of time at the café. Maybe he just likes the food or maybe he likes a certain shy waiter???</p>
            </blockquote>





	On the Road to Wonderland I met a Wonder

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first ever fanfic and I really hope you like it. It was fun to write as I love Haikyuu!! and these characters. I would love constructive criticism just please be gentle as I admit I am a noob when it comes to writing fanfiction. I know my grammar is not the best but I am trying I swear.

Kenma awoke to the incessant ringing of his alarm clock. He decided that getting out of bed was the hardest part of the day. Mornings in general were tough but specifically getting out of bed was the most difficult task. You need motivation to get out of bed and start a day and he had none. It didn’t help that he was a night owl and went to bed at ungodly hours anyway. So after waging a battle to will himself to leave the security and solidarity of his bed and face the outside world and the responsibilities it brought with it he was already starting off tired. He checked the time on his phone and realized due to his snoozing the alarm three times he had about thirty minutes to get to work. He sighed, pushed a hand through his hair and got up to take a quick shower and change.  
“Mornin’ Kenma!” greeted his coworker and best friend Hinata Shouyou. Hinata was just grabbing his uniform from his locker when Kenma entered the changing room.  
“Morning,” He replied and stifled a yawn with one hand while opening his locker with the other.  
“Did you stay up late playing a game again? Your eyes have dark circles under them.” Hinata said bluntly.  
“Yeah, but in my defense I had just gotten it and I was eager to finally start. Time kinda slipped away from me for a while.”  
“Well if you need any help today you know I’ve got you covered.”  
“Thanks I think I’ll be fine though.”  
Kenma was so grateful for his friendship with Hinata. He didn’t make friends easily and most people’s company just stressed him out. Somehow Hinata was different. They had met on the job where they both worked at a cat café called The Cheshire. Hinata had only been there two weeks before Kenma was hired and they bonded over their shared newbie status. It turned out they were both attending the same university as well though under different fields of study. They had quickly become friends and hung out outside of work as well. Hinata’s company and unrelenting enthusiasm for life made Kenma be more optimistic about his own life and made working in customer service bearable.  
He finished getting changed into his uniform of black pants, a black dress shirt with a blue cat head emblem on the pocket, and a white apron tied around his waist. He tied his hair back in a ponytail and went to go check the board stating today’s special. It was Butternut Squash Soup.  
The morning passed by uneventfully. It wasn’t too busy at the café but just enough so that when he took his break he felt like he’d earned it. Kenma didn’t really feel like walking anyplace else so he took off his apron and ate a sandwich in the kitchen before slipping into the cat room to relax a bit.  
The cat room was kept separate from the main dining area because eating with cat hair everywhere could be unsanitary and they didn’t want the cats to get sick from eating something they shouldn’t have. There was another room where the litterboxes, food, and water were kept and was accessible to the cats by a door flap. In the main cat room there were pet beds, comfy chairs and couches, scratching posts, and cat trees along with toys that littered the ground. It was pretty much heaven for cats. They currently had seven cats. The cats were all up for adoption and were never usually around for more than a couple of months. It made Kenma happy whenever a cat was adopted but he could never suppress a twinge of sadness as well. The cats were his friends even though he would never admit that out loud because it sounded so dorky.  
Kenma took a quick look around and was surprised to see he was alone. Usually it was impossible to be uninterrupted in here during working hours. He collapsed onto a chair and almost immediately a cat snuck its way onto his lap. He smiled when he saw which one it was. It was the cat he had named Espurr. He knew it was nerdy but he couldn’t help himself, it really did resemble the Pokemon. She was a grey Scottish fold with blue eyes. She’d been here for four months and while she didn’t seem to like playing with any of the other cats or employees she had become attached to Kenma. He felt flattered and he was quite attached to her too. He was really going to miss her when she got adopted and hoped that she got an amazing home with someone who appreciated her name.  
“Hey gorgeous how are you doing?” he cooed to her as the cat purred in his lap.  
“Even better now that I got to wake up to this view.”  
Spooked, Kenma jumped out of his chair sending Espurr flying. He spun around to see…nothing?  
Behind him came a low chuckle and he spun around again to see a person’s laughing head poking up from behind a couch. He stared as the person stopped laughing and stood up from behind the couch. Kenma hadn’t seen him before and hadn’t heard him come in after him. Had he been in here napping before Kenma came in? Now he wasn’t saying anything, just staring at him with a smirk on his face.  
“You aren’t allowed to sleep in here,” Kenma muttered as his cheeks burned with embarrassment and he stared at the ground.  
“Ah, yeah I didn’t mean to fall asleep. I was just in here laying down playing with a cat and then I guess I fell asleep. Sorry for scaring you that much I didn’t mean to do that either.” Kenma glanced up at the guy who at least had the good grace to look embarrassed as well.  
“It’s alright, just, you know you shouldn’t do it again,” Kenma replied looking back down at the floor again.  
“Here, let me buy you a drink to make up for startling you,” the guy said as he walked around the couch and in front of Kenma. He looked up again, his protest on his lips when the stranger held up a hand.  
“It’s the least I can do. I insist,” He said with a smile and started walking towards the door.  
“I can’t!” Kenma practically shouted in his panic to stop him. He then winced in embarrassment. “Sorry, um I meant I can’t because I work here and I was just on break. I have to get back to work now.” He said much quieter.  
“Oh, alright” Kenma peered up at the man and was surprised to see that he looked genuinely disappointed. “Another time then!” He said, his features quickly shifting back to a smirk. “See ya!” And with that he left.  
“What an odd encounter,” Kenma whispered to himself. The stranger had looked to be around his age. He was probably a student too but Kenma had never seen him around his corner of the campus. Why had he actually looked disappointed that he couldn’t join him for a drink? Kenma thought that he had only been offering out of obligation to be polite and would be secretly happy that Kenma couldn’t oblige. He had been handsome, too. Attractive and tall, he could have been a model. He didn’t hang out with those sorts of people and those sorts of people avoided him as well. Well, whatever. It wasn’t likely that he actually would come back to keep up his offer of a drink. Kenma was better off forgetting about him. And yet, he surprised himself by realizing he felt disappointed. That frustrated him and with his break being over he went back to work confused and rumpled instead of relaxed and ready to face people again. The rest of the day went by agonizingly slow.  
He was so relieved when 8:30 hit and the restaurant cleared of people as they closed the café. Hinata and Kenma wiped the tables off together and fed the cats their afternoon meal. Kenma had fed Espurr some cat treats to make up for him launching her off his lap earlier. She purred as she brushed against his legs and he knew he had been forgiven.  
In the changing room Hinata chattered on about his day and how he had been shocked and happy when his boyfriend, Kageyama had dropped by to see him and also chastise him for leaving his lunch at home. Hinata and Kenma walked home with eachother when their schedules lined up because they only lived about a ten minute walk away from each other.  
“Hey Kenma you’ve got tomorrow off too, right?” Hinata asked.  
“Mhm”  
“Well, I just got Time Warp Wars and was wondering if you wanted it. Turns out I accidentally got the wrong version for the console I have, ha ha whoops! You can have it on the condition that I get to play it with you!”  
“Alright, let’s play it tomorrow,” Kenma had been excited for this game’s release and had yet had a chance to pick it up.  
“Woohoo! Okay, I’ll come over around twelve. You better be awake by then.”  
“I’ll try.”  
Hinata laughed and bid him goodbye as they reached the point where their paths split.  
Kenma had worked from 12 to 9:30 and even though he was exhausted, when he got home he stayed up until 1:30 messing around on his phone. It had been a very long day. Asleep, he dreamed of a smirking Cheshire cat.


End file.
